The fall 2006 issue of Media-N, “Art in the Age of TechnologicalSeduction,” is a collaborative platform, a diverse questioning, re-considering and re-imaging of what, when and how new media artspractice is viewed by artists, practitioners, theorists, critics andhistorians working in the field today. We seek a broad range ofcontributions discussing the scope, values, and definitions ofdiverse new media arts practices and hope that this issue of Media-Nwill be a departure as much as much as an arrival. Four generalquestions have been posed by the members of the new media caucus aspoints of entry for an engaging, vibrant discussion.

The issue will be divided into two sections: The first sectioninvites brief personal accounts and anecdotal responses addressingand/or expanding one of the four questions, and we encourage everyoneto respond to this section, as we’d like to include as many responsesas possible. The second section invites papers that address thesequestions in a more lengthy and detailed form.

Four Questions:1. Defining and Re-imaginingWhat are new media arts? Is it necessary that we define new mediaarts? How do we begin to discuss or teach new media arts? What setsnew media arts apart from other disciplines or practices, or whatconnects them? What's (still) new about new media or what was, ifanything ever was? What defines your work as new media art and why?How do you explain new media arts to your students and colleagues?What did or currently does attract you to new media arts practices?

2. Discourses on New Media Arts: What do the discourses do to thepractice? How might one describe or define the discourse/s on newmedia arts? How does new media arts discourse relate to new mediapractices? In other words, what does the discourse/s do or attempt todo to new media arts? Are theory and practice being brought togetherin new media arts discourse, and if not, how might we begin to do so?What do you find interesting or problematic about new media artsdiscourses? Do you think there is a disjuncture between new mediaarts practice and the discourses on it? As a new media artist, do newmedia arts discourses affect your practice?

3. Authorship, Relationships & RelationalityDoes your work maintain a traditional relationship between the artist/author/producer and the spectator/viewer? If not, how does ittransgress these boundaries? Do you feel it necessary to challengethese boundaries? Do you consider relationality, the non-hierarchicalintertwining of data, artwork, artists, and viewers etc., animportant aspect of your work? In what context/s is your work shownand how does effect it. How do recombinatory practices commonlyfound in new media such as sampling, appropriation, and mash-ups,challenge traditional author/viewer conventions? While autonomy andrelationality have long lineages in art history, how do they functionwithin new media arts practices and discourses?

4. E-litism: Technospheres and the EverydayHow do notions of location, language, identity, and culturalunderstandings of communication inform or effect new media practices?Who is left out of, disproportionately under-represented, in theworld of new media art practices? Is, as some have argued, theopenness often associated with information technologies and new mediapractices, paradoxically, replacing the national politics of a pastwith the global connectivity of cosmopolitan tourism? How does yourparticular specificity (sexual, gender, ethnic, racial, class) affectyour practice, your work or its reception?